ASUS has introduced its largest Designo Curve display to date that weds style with a sophisticated feature set. The new MX38VQ uses a UWQHD-class (3840x1600) IPS panel and is equipped with a Qi wireless charging pad, as well as a Harman/Kardon-designed audio sub-system. The product will hit the market in the second half of this year and its price will not be very high for its size and features.

ASUS introduced its first Designo-series display eight or nine years ago in an attempt to address customers looking for an elegant design as well as premium specifications. Today, the lineup includes ten 23” to 34” monitors with eye-catching aesthetics that use high-resolution IPS panels and built-in audio co-designed with brands like Bang & Olufsen or Harman/Kardon. The Designo Curve is a relatively new addition to the Designo family as the first monitor in the sub-series was announced in mid-2016. At CES, ASUS introduced the second curved Designo display that will also be the largest monitor in the company’s stylish lineup and among the largest ultra-wide displays on the market in general.

The ASUS Designo Curve MX38VQ is based on a 37.5” IPS panel with a 3840×1600 resolution, a 24:10 aspect ratio and 2300R curvature. The rather distinctive specs of the panel may point to the fact that it was sourced from LG and we already know what it is capable of. The resolution of the display is well suited for displaying UHD content filmed in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 or 2.40:1 (a lot of movies are shot in such aspect ratios). Like the smaller curved Designo model, the MX38VQ uses a stereo audio sub-system co-designed with Harman/Kardon that features two 8 W speakers and software enhancements. As for connectivity, the new monitor has DisplayPort and HDMI inputs, just like many contemporary products.

ASUS Designo Curve MX38VQ

Panel

37.5" IPS

Resolution

3840 × 1600

Refresh Rate

60 Hz

Response Time

5 ms gray-to-gray
14 md standard

Brightness

300 cd/m²

Contrast

1000:1

Viewing Angles

178°/178° horizontal/vertical

Color Saturation

100% sRGB
10-bit (8-bit + FRC)

Pixel Pitch

0.23 mm

Pixel Density

110 ppi

Inputs

1 x DisplayPort 1.2
2 x HDMI 2.0

Qi Wireless Charging

5W/1A with aurora lighting

Audio

8 W × 2
Harmon/Kardon

Launch Price

$1099

One of the main selling points of the new Designo Curve MX38VQ display is a 5W/1A Qi wireless charging pad in the base. So far, only AOC and Samsung have released monitors with Qi charging commercially (the Designo Curve MX34VQ announced last year is still not available) and there are no large high-end displays with this feature on the market right now. Meanwhile, there are tens of smartphones and tablets with integrated Qi wireless charging (including those from ASUS itself, but also from Samsung, Google, HP, Microsoft and other) and there are accessories that enable the tech on devices without integrated support (e.g., on Apple iPhone 6S).

ASUS plans to start selling the Designo Curve MX38VQ in Q3 2017 for $1099, which is considerably lower compared to the current price of the LG38UC99 (~$1600) that allegedly uses the same panel. The monitor is already listed on the company’s global website, which may indicate that the product will be available rather earlier than later.

Having wireless charging in the base of monitor isnt a new concept(Dell U2417HJ is one of the examples) but real shame is the phone makers not providing wireless charging in their devices. I wont mind if NFC were to go removed in favour of wireless charging. Reply

It's definitely a neat concept. My only potential concern is due to knowing that putting my phone on the desk under my NEC 3090 results in losing roughly a bar of signal strength. As expensive as the NEC is I'm assuming it's a big object with a lot of metal in it problem, not EMI leakage; but don't have any way to measure the difference.Reply

I don't know, at work where I plop my butt down for eight hours a day, I don't need a blistering fast charge. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. Same thing with an overnight charge. The convenience of putting my phone down knowing that the next time I pick it up it'll magically have more charge, sometimes it's nice and the slower charging speed is pretty irrelevant.Reply

When I had an S7, I charged it on a wireless dock at work and it worked exactly as conveniently as you would think. I basically never had to plug in my phone at home because I could get through an evening with a full charge, which I always left work with.Reply

You are wrong, actually the 34 inch ACER PREDATOR 3440X1440 is the rich man's gaming monitor.

The OP is NOT a gaming monitor b/c it does NOT feature GSYNC or FREESYNC. If you think that GSYNC or FREESYNC isn't a big deal, wait until you start playing games and you get serious screen tearing all over your screen.Reply